Thursday This n That

Scars... I haz 'em.  A friend of mine posted yesterday about an ungraceful thing she'd done that ended up with an ouchie.  It got me to thinking about all of my ouchies over the years and then all the scars I have.  Like I said in her comments, my life has been a journey of ouchies and my body is the map.  I can pinpoint where most of the scars came from - starting with the one on the back of my neck from when I was small.  Spook the cat got me when I tried to carry him.  Or maybe the two on my chin were first.  Those came from a poodle bite when I was like 4.  I actually have a dent in my jawbone from one of those.  :shrug:  My mother is amazed the experience didn't make me fear dogs, but nope.  (I still don't like poodles of a certain size, though.)

I've been bit by too many animals.  The poodle started it.  Cats, of course.  Snakes - of the garter variety.  I have a scar on my hand from Zeus the German Shepherd, who was a goofy, sweet dog - unless he was chained up and then he was on guard duty.  I didn't see the chain attached, so I tried to pet him and he engulfed my hand.  Luckily, only one tooth got me.  I also had a Doberman nip me in the face, but he didn't break the skin, thank goodness.  I got bit by a horse once.  JR was as dumb as a stump.  One day I was cleaning his stall while he was still in it - don't ask why, I don't remember - and he bit the back of my leg.  Thank goodness for denim or he would've taken a chunk out.  Left a baseball-sized bruise instead.  I think he's the only living thing I've ever punched.  He bit me, and I turned around and nailed him in the neck.  He never bit me again.  Of course, I was never stupid enough to be alone in a stall with him again either.  

Sometimes, I don't know when to keep my thoughts to myself.  It's usually when I think I'm helping, so it's not with evil intent, but the results are the same.  I'm sorry.  A while back, I had a friend who spent a lot of time talking about what seemed to me to be her mentally/emotionally abusive relationship with her husband.  One day, I suggested she find a way to leave him.  Never heard from her again.  She's still out there, but I'm blocked.  Maybe she just wanted someone to vent to and not advice.  I'm bad at figuring that stuff out.  

And people wonder why I'm a hermit.

Thursday This n That

In case you're not on FB or MeWe, here's a picture of Penelope O'Possum...

...when she stopped by the yard a couple afternoons ago.  Mom's reaction "she's so clean".  All in all, I don't think opossums are dirty.  Sometimes they just look that way because they don't have access to laundry detergent to make their whites bright.

I'm up to 13% on my edits as of last night.  Slow progress is still progress.

And I vacuumed yesterday.  And I walked.  Pulling myself out of the mire by my bootstraps.  (Okay, so maybe Hubs had to poke me in the metaphorical ass to get me to take a walk... but I did it.)

I'm in the middle of an Alistair MacLean novel right now.  I was reading along, wondering what in the hell he was thinking about when he wrote the MC as a criminal who shoots a cop and runs from the law.  Umm, long about the middle, you learn it's all a set up so the MC can infiltrate the bad guys.  Yay.  I was worried maybe ol' Alistair had gone off the rails, but nope.  

Yesterday, I forgot to defrost anything for dinner, so long about 5, I was trying to figure out what the hell to do.  I made a meatloaf the other day, but we'd both had leftover meatloaf for lunch.  Then it hit me - grilled cheese sandwiches.  Then another thing hit me - put slices of leftover meatloaf in the grilled cheese sandwiches.  Thank goodness for my Foreman Grill.  I just assembled the suckers, slid them onto the grill and closed the lid.  Two-three minutes later, they were done.  And they were awesome.  Mine had Swiss and American cheeses, Hubs' was Cheddar and American.  Yummers.  Not sure why I never thought of doing that before.  

BTW, there's nothing quite so yummy as leftover meatloaf.  Am I right or am I right?

And that's enough of that.  What's up in your this-n-that this week?

Thursday This n That

I totally brainfarted out on the whole 'today is Thursday' thing until a few minutes ago.  Good thing, because my timesheet is due on Thursday morning and the office just opened.

And then I got distracted for an hour, so this is even later.  Derp.

There are so many rant worthy things going on right now, I could rant all day and not touch them all.  To the people jumping on the 'get rid of the police' bandwagon, be careful what you wish for.  Criminals don't ask what your opinions are before they commit crimes against you and they aren't going to thank you for making their criminality easier.  In fact, I suspect they're laughing at you right now.  Suckers.

Ahem.

The next part of the 'under the deck' project requires blocks of some kind.  The kind Hubs wants weigh 70 lbs each but would only require 10 of them.  The kind I'm leaning toward is lighter and would require like 30.  His blocks would match the ones we already have in place and would do the job better.  My blocks wouldn't throw either of our backs out and since it's under the deck, they don't have to match the ones in the front.  His would cost a total of like $50.  Mine would cost a total of like $100.  Until we settle which block wins, the project is on hold.*

Please be careful driving right now.  Many animals are having babies or have babies dependent on them, so if you hit one and it's a mom, you've sentenced her babies to a horrible death by starvation.  Slow down.  Pay attention.  Keeping that in mind, though, don't do anything stupid like swerving to miss a critter and getting yourself killed.

I really need to go fishing.  Unfortunately, it's too hot and all the fishies will be too deep for me to reach.  =o\

Maybe I'll just go for a walk.  Right now, I'm waiting for the butter to soften so I can make oatmeal cookies, and it's kind of cool, so it would be a good time to get outside.

You, too.  Go outside or something when you can.  K?

What's on your this n that list today?

* 10:10am.  I was mistaken when I wrote this earlier.  I got to thinking about it and about three smaller blocks I was using for something else and then I went out and started messing with it.  I need about a dozen more smaller blocks to achieve the look and utility I was going for.  Not today, but soon.

Thursday This n That

Under the heading of things I did not need to know, I heard on TV the other day that koala poop smells lovely.  Apparently, it's all the eucalyptus they eat.  I would think that would make it smell like cough drops - cue the ewww - but that's me.

In college, I took a class called The Psychology of Sexual Behavior.  It was taught by a woman who looked like she ought to be home baking cookies for the grandkids, which made talking about sexual subjects kind of weird.  Anyway, the only things I remember from the class were the factoids she would drop at the beginning of class - like a sperm whale's penis is twelve feet long and three feet in diameter at the base.  =oO

The hardest part about quitting ice cream is that I have the urge to make chocolate cake but chocolate cake without ice cream is just wrong.  It's been 39 days since I last ate ice cream and I only miss it a little.  Sometimes.  A lot when I'm having a rough day.

Yesterday, I had to run a quick errand and on the drive, I got a sudden craving for chocolate.  Would you believe the dollar store has already changed over to Easter candy?  Those unromantic bastards.  Anyway, I snagged a Russell Stover Maple Cream egg and assorted non-holiday chocolates.  I inhaled the egg when I got home.  So fluffy!  Yum! 

I also picked up a Dr. Pepper, which I hadn't had in years.  I also haven't had a carbonated soda in months.  I might've drank a third of it.  It was interesting.  Definitely burpy.  And I definitely don't miss it.

Okay, I think I've chewed your ears enough today.  What's on your mind?

Thursday This n That

Sleep deprivation... It's real and it's deep, man.  There is not enough coffee on the planet today.  I think I need a java IV.  STAT.

Have you noticed the vape commercials on TV?  "May contain nicotine."  They can't advertise cigarettes on TV, but they can advertise that?  I also saw an ad for something like a nicotine pouch you can put in your mouth.  But they can't advertise chew.  Now, I'm not advocating getting rid of those product ads.  I'm just saying if they can advertise, the others should be able to also.  I find the hypocrisy irritating.

Speaking of commercials, have you noticed they've upped the number of them?  Used to be like 3 maybe four commercials every fifteen minutes.  Now it's like 5-7 every ten or so minutes.  And if it's an old show from back in the fewer commercials days, they chop it up and suck parts out of it to allow for the commercials.  Or suddenly an hour long show is like an hour and fifteen. 

The neighborhood guinea hens amuse me.  The other day I was driving out and saw them all sprawled in one of the neighbor's driveway, sleeping and doing their feathers and just generally chilling out.  They're such funny little things.  Of course, sometimes I have to stop and remind them to get out of the road.  Move along, ladies, before someone squashes you flat.

Which reminds me of a funny thing I've seen around the webs.  It goes something like 'Be decisive.  The road is paved with flat squirrels who couldn't make a decision.' 

Speaking of which, I hit a squirrel a couple days ago.  It came from the other side of the road and stopped in the middle.  Then it gave me this horrified, scared look and proceeded to run in front of my car.  I had hoped it would manage to be in the middle of the car, but one of my wheels must've got it because I could see it in the rearview, laying there in the road.  If it had simply stayed where it was or run back the other way, it would've been fine.  But no.  Stupid suicidal squirrel.  And I know there are millions of squirrels, but I always feel bad when I hit one. 

I also feel bad when I hit butterflies.  Lucky for me, it's fleeting or I'd be driving around feeling bad all the time.

I finally remembered to clean my computer vents.  It's running much quieter now.  Whew.  I so do not need a crash right now.

And on that note, I'll let you get back to your morning coffee.  Bottoms up.

Sunday Update - Week 16

Here we are again.  Tada!

Once again, I did no writing, but I did get some editing done.  I really do love this book.  However, I've loved all my books.  Whether I love a book is not indicative of whether the world will love them, apparently.  Derp.

I've been marketing my wide ass off.  (Not literally, unfortunately.  Would that marketing could reduce ass size... :sigh:)  The ad generated 28 sales.  Hopefully I'll see page reads from that in the next week or so.  I sold 5 books I'm going to attribute to a combination of FB marketing and the increased rank from the ad sales.  AD hit #48 in Hard-Boiled Mystery, which is always good.  It also reached the top 100 in Noir.  Of course, those rankings didn't last the day, but hey, it was nice to see them first thing in the morning. And the sale is still going - today and tomorrow.  Woohoo.

I did a bit of reading.  Finished two and DNF'd two.

Kind of fell apart on the activity and the eating this week.  Only 4 out of 7 days of active stuff and some of that could barely count.  I mean, I got up off my dead butt and did something, but whether 3 of those days burned any calories?  Meh.  I know I burned calories yesterday because I scrubbed the kitchen-stove rug by hand and then I scrubbed the floors and shook all the other rugs.  Good upper-body workout, lemme tell ya.

On the other hand, I ate like a cow last week.  Which leads me to...

I made a bunch of foods last week.  Three straight days of baking - pizza, cake, and cookies - Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.  Finished the pizza Thursday, but we still have cake and cookies.  It's not so much eating things that's getting me, though, it's the amounts of things I'm eating.  I really need to cut down on the serving sizes.  I'm a firm believer in 'it's not what you eat, it's how much of it you eat'.  Gotta find some will power to eat less.  And exercise more, of course.

We went the entire week with no rat!  Peppermint, clove, and cedarwood oils did the trick.  I think.  I plan on doing an experiment starting tonight where I don't spray for a week and see if the furry bitch comes back.  If I don't spray and she comes back, it was the spray that drove her away.  If I don't spray and she doesn't come back, it's possible she got tired of rebuilding her nest.  Or a predator ate her.  I'm hoping it's not the latter.  She really was cute as a bug's butt.  And as annoying as she was, I don't want her to be dead.  Still, she's a prey animal and we do have coyotes, bobcats, foxes, snakes, and owls who would all find her to be a yummy meal.

Other than that, not much going on out here in the back of beyond.  What's up in your world?

ETA:  Ahem.  Totally forgot today would be Easter when I scheduled this post last night.  Happy Easter, Everyone!  

Adapt the Critters or Adapt Yourself?

One thing confuses me about the time change... Okay, everything confuses me about the time change, but until we can get the government to stop doing this to us, we're stuck with it... Anyway, what confuses me is why we even attempt to make our animals adapt to it.  Isn't it easier to change the feeding schedule so they never even notice this weird human thing we do?

This hadn't occurred to me until years ago when I was talking with a woman whose husband worked at the local feedlot.

Now, if you're not familiar with a feedlot, it's where the farmers send their young steers to fatten up before they head to market.  Imagine huge pens with thousands of cows each, standing around waiting to get fed.  And they get fed on a schedule.  Which they're used to.

Then comes the time change.

So, anyway, she was telling me the worst part of the time change is getting all those cows to adapt to the new feeding schedule.  Easily a hundred thousand cows waiting an extra hour for their feed every fall.  Apparently, it's quite the loud and raucous affair.

And it occurred to me.  Why force all those cows to adapt when it would be easier to set the feeding schedule to when the cows expect to eat? 

At home, I adjusted my own thinking.  I mean, it's a real pain to get Kira to move her expectations an hour.  She meows.  She carries on.  She gets in my personal space and pats at me.  Way easier for me to feed her an hour earlier. 

If one cat can make that much racket, imagine what a hundred thousand cows can do.

Around here, we have scads of turkey raising facilities.  Little Butterball signs at the ends of the driveways point them out, but you can see the long, low buildings as you drive down the highway.  Right now, I'm guessing those turkeys are having to adjust to being fed an hour later than they're used to.  And the Tyson farms with all those chickens.  And birds are dumber than cows. 

Wouldn't all these animals be under less stress if we were the ones to adjust?  Contented animals make for more plentiful and tastier meat. 

Speaking of feeding, Kira is reminding me that it's time for her morning food.  She got fed at around 6:30am before the time change, so now it's 5:30am.  I'm up by this time most mornings, so it's no big deal.  And if I wasn't up, she'd wake me up - just like before the time change.

How about you?  Do you adapt or do you make them adapt?  How's that working for you?

Thursday This n That

We had a yellow-billed cuckoo in our redbud tree this week.  I'd never seen one before, so I got to add a new bird to my life list.  You know, if I actually kept a life list.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you're not a birder.  I'm not actually a birder.  I just like to watch birds from the comfort of my own home.  Or wherever I happen to be at.  I'm totally not into driving all over creation to watch birds.  On a side note, if you haven't seen The Big Year, it's totally awesome.

The grain bugs are still here.  They can't be finding much to eat, so I don't expect they'll be around long.  We also are having a resurgence of these little flies.  Look kinda like fruit flies, except they're more interested in Kira's canned food than anything sweet.  Bleh.  Bugs... all part of living in the jungle, I guess.

I'm writing this Thursday night as I wait for the new Homicide Hunter to start.  Why they have to put the damn thing on at 9pm I'll never know.  I almost never stay up past nine, so it starting at my bedtime is really cheesing me off.  Odds are even that I'll fall asleep halfway through.

And then I'll go to bed and lie awake for what feels like freakin' ever.

Hubs sprayed vinegar on the driveway this week.  Is it wrong that we take so much pleasure in watching weeds die?  If yes, you don't even want to know how much I celebrate when he sprays for ticks. 

Somehow or other, we ended up with a mom dog and three pups in the neighborhood.  I haven't seen them yet, but Hubs has.  One of the neighbors seemed like she was going to take them in and do something with them.  Then he saw them running loose again.  If no one handles it soon, I will be scooping them up and taking them to one of the local rescues.  =o\

Yes, I love dogs.  Yes, I would love to have a dog.  No, I will not be getting a dog.  It would be cruel to Kira, for one.  And it would be cruel to the dog, because we do not have the time or the patience for an animal.  Except for Kira.  She's family.

Okay, time for Kenda.  What's on your this n that radar today?

Thursday This n That

First off, Early Grave went live last night, shortly after midnight.  I'm now working on updating all the things, but I'm coffee deficient as of yet.  If you see something that's not updated - like the sidebars or what have you - give me time.

Hubs crawled all over the roof cleaning gutters while I walked around on the ground making sure the drainage was correct (adjusting rocks under the downspouts for optimum flow and minimal erosion) and letting him know when the water ran clean.  It's a pain, but if we don't do it, the gutters get clogged and then they run over and make a mess and... Well, we just do it.  And yes, we have gutter screens to keep the majority of the crap out, but they still get crap in them.

He roof crawls because I get vertigo.  Otherwise, I'd love to crawl all over the roof and see the gnarly view we have from up there.

He also mowed the lawn yesterday while I worked on edits.  If I'd been mowing, EG would not have gone live last night, because I would've been too pooped to get anything else done.  He's so awesome.

I am once again under the 'push push push to get the book published, fall apart afterwards' thing.  Nothing's wrong with me, I'm just drained.  But I still have stuffs to do.  Hubs was all like 'now you can take a break' and I was all like 'ROFL'.  There's markety stuffs and updatey stuffs, posts and blogs and tweets, oh, my.  I have to make new bookmarks and postcards.  And there's the paperback formatting and cover creation.  No rest for the writerly.

The birds are sucking down the suet at about a brick a day, and since I make my own suet, that means I'm making a batch about every 4-5 days. The worst piggies are the crows and the jays.  Of course, the squirrels don't help.  I chase them off when I catch them hanging off the suet cage, but I can't be watching that damn thing all day.  I might break down and buy suet this week. 

Okay, that's quite enough out of me again.  What have you got for me?

Thursday This n That

Laying in bed last night I thought of some really awesome things to put in today's this-n-that post.  Bet you can guess what happened to those ideas.  Blerg.

I want to pour myself some more coffee, but I know if I go anywhere near the kitchen the cat will meow at me incessantly to be fed, but it isn't time to feed her yet and I don't want to encourage her bad behavior.  So here I sit with my mug almost empty.  For another twenty-thirty minutes.

I dreamed an entire episode of Grey's Anatomy the other night.  I wasn't in the dream, I was just watching it like it was on TV, but a full-sized, 360 TV.  This is weird because I stopped watching Grey's Anatomy years ago.  I think I had it because of the commercials for that new thing the gal who played Christina Yang in in. 

Technology is awesome.  I read a news story this morning about a woman who'd been murdered in 1981 and they finally identified the body using new DNA technology.  I hope they can finally catch her killer.

My husband took pity on me and brought me coffee.  Kira doesn't bother him in the morning, so he can go in the kitchen any time he wants to.  Lucky duck.

It's supposed to get up to 78F here today.  Time to break out the shorts.  Unfortunately, it's also supposed to be windy, so that shoots out fishing. Not that I really have time for fishing right now.  Busy busy.

The other night we were awakened at 3:30am by the most horrible noises in the backyard.  My guess was that it was either raccoons or foxes making whoopie.  And after a bit of research, the winner is: Foxes gekkering.  From Popular Science: "...it's a guttural chattering with occasional yelps and howls, like an ack-ack-ack-ackawoooo-ack-ack-ack. Gekkering is heard amongst adults in aggressive encounters (of which there are many; red foxes are highly territorial) and also amongst young kits playing (or play-fighting)."  It's kinda freaky.

And that's it for me.  Time to feed the cat.

Thursday This n That

It's February.  I suppose I ought to change my calendar.

I've had the same song stuck in my head for DAYS, and it's making me crazypants.  I won't mention the title here because I don't want to see this and get it started again.  You know, in the off chance I ever get it stopped.  I keep trying to replace it with other songs and that works for a while.  Then next thing I know, it's there again.  Arrgghh.

What's up pussycat? Meow, meow, meow.

Okay, now that that's over for a while, maybe I can think about other stuff.  Let's see...

Hubs and I were watching See No Evil last night when the lead-in showed a rabbit underneath a car and we were both like 'Bunny!'  Then we started joking about how traumatic it must've been for the rabbit and now it's got to be in the Rabbit Protection Program.  We were cracking each other up.  By the way, the bunny never figured into the murder.  Talk about 'gun on the mantel'.  ;o)

By the way, we each shout out animal names as we see them.  So, if one of us is by a window and sees a rabbit, the viewer will shout 'Bunny'.  Most often, though, it's 'Deer'.  Yesterday, we both happened to look out the front window as a big red-shouldered hawk was flying through and we both yelled 'Hawk' at the same time.  Yep, we're weird.

I bought a couple pairs of thermal socks last year.  Women's thermal socks.  They never fit right and they're actually kind of nubby, so they hurt to walk on.  But I paid good money for them and I am going to wear them, goddamnit.  (No, I couldn't take them back.  I washed them before I discovered they were foot torture devices.)  Except this morning the pair was hurting so bad while I was standing in the kitchen, I took them off and threw them away, crying "Socks shouldn't hurt!  Why am I wearing socks that hurt me?!"  The other pair will get thrown out the next time I'm by my sock drawer.  I now have soft, fluffy thermal socks on.  Men's thermal socks because, even though they're too big, they don't hurt me.

I have to wear thermal socks pretty much all winter because I get really cold feet.  Sometimes it's hard to cram on shoes because my socks are so fat.  But they're warm, so I live with it.  If I had all the money in the world, I'd have 'winter shoes' a half size larger than 'rest of the year shoes', just for the socks. 

Okay, I think that's quite enough out of me.  What's on your radar today?